


Bloodthirsty

by SilverPear



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Vampire, Banter, Blood Drinking, Drinking, F/M, Halloween, Not really though, Some Fluff, Tags Are Hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26945632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverPear/pseuds/SilverPear
Summary: Rayllum Halloween fic!Everyone knows that elves drink blood... right?Unable to sleep, Callum gets advice from townsfolk and meets a peculiar night owl, then finds himself drawn back to her night after night.
Relationships: Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 109
Kudos: 130





	1. Night Walker

**Author's Note:**

> Additional tags/warnings: Hard T+ rating for non-explicit adult themes, alcohol consumption, minor violence, and language. One instance of non-con blood drinking.
> 
> Hello!
> 
> I always found the human notion that elves are literal 'bloodthirsty monsters' a bit odd- but October seems like the perfect time to write about it! I really don't know much about vampires besides some very general knowledge so I'm definitely winging a lot of the language and such here- just having fun playing with the concept! Taking a first shot at splitting a fic across (hopefully reasonably-sized) chapters, trying to finish around Halloween itself!

☽

Callum let his legs swing over the edge of the roof and looked out over the city nightscape for the hundredth time. The soft orange glows of fire and candlelight had winked out in windows and streetlamps until only the all-nighters were left. The full-ish moon cast the night in its silvery blue glow. 

He thumbed the rim of the full tankard and sighed. Why couldn’t he just sleep?

“What’ve you got there?”

The sudden voice startled him, and he sloshed a bit of ale while jerking away from the open air. He attempted to twist around, but the speaker dropped next to him and threw their legs out to mirror his.

They’d wrapped themselves in a dark cloak with a large hood- from the side, Callum could only catch glimpses of their nose, and their mouth moving when they spoke.

“Oh, alcohol, nice. But you don’t _look_ eighteen.”

A woman, and a foreigner. He’d never heard the accent at court.

“I am!” His defiance wilted. “Soon, anyways.”

Callum sighed in defeat and started to pour the drink out to the ground below, but the stranger’s hand darted out to grab his wrist. “Woah there! I’m not gonna report you or somethin’. No need to waste it. First drink?”

“I’ve had wine. Just a bit here and there.” Where was the harm in honesty? Maybe she could help. “I just can’t sleep, that’s all. And everyone-” he gestured to encompass the city “-suggests I drink for it.”

“Ah.” She kicked her legs idly, letting her heels knock gently against the wall of the building they sat atop. “ _Personally_ I'd say you’re not exercisin' enough. Gotta wear yourself out to sleep well!”

Callum leaned forward to try and see into her hood, but she turned away. “What are _you_ still doing up, then?”

“Working!” That sounded a bit forced. “Night watch and all.” She faked a cough. A terrible liar.

“Yeah, I don’t think so. I’ve lived here all my life and the night watch doesn’t wear _that_.”

“Ugh, fine! I’m bored and saw you up here, so I got curious.” At least that was believable.

“Satisfied? Just a lone weirdo who can’t sleep, and a drink he won’t drink.”

“A bit, but no. If you’re not drinking then pass it here, _then_ I’ll be satisfied.”

He turned the tankard in his hand and offered it over handle-first.

“Oh, really? Thanks!” Her hand looked a little small for an adult as she took the drink, but he could only watch in awe as she quaffed the entirety in one go, tossing the empty vessel over her shoulder to clatter on the roof.

“Pwah! Lousy stuff, really, but gives me all the right tingles.” She sighed happily.

“It didn’t smell very good… is alcohol really that great?”

“Eh, it’s different for everyone. Loosens me up a little- I’m uh, usually really... uptight. Wouldn’t even think of coming up here normally.” So she was already drunk before she climbed up to him. It probably wasn’t safe for her to be on the roof, much less dangling her legs over a two-story drop.

He felt a little responsible for luring her into potential danger. “Hey, what do you say we get down from here, huh?”

His companion faced him, then, and the unnatural combination of light purple eyes and dark facial tattoos startled him, but she didn’t seem to notice. She was young. Close to his age, maybe?

Those strange eyes narrowed. “Hmm. You’re rather forward, aren’t you?”

Having been quite dense towards this kind of talk for too long, Callum now knew to blush while correcting her. “No!” He coughed to cover his outburst. “I mean, no, that’s not what I meant, I just don’t want you to fall.”

He stood and offered her a hand up, which she quickly accepted, gripping his wrist. “Yeah! If you’re trying to get worn out and sleep, we should have a little fun!”

That didn’t sound safe, either.

“Um, I’m actually feeling a bit tired after our talk, so thanks for that, but I should really be getting back, sorry.”

“Ah well, that’s great if you think you can rest, though, right?”

Callum could only shrug.

“I’ll walk you home, then!”

“Uh, that’s really not necessar-”

“No, no, I insist! Need to stretch m’legs anyways.”

This might get awkward. “Well, I won’t stop you…”

“Perfect! Lead on!”

Callum didn’t question how she beat him down to ground level- the cloaked girl seemed to know her way around the city better than he did. She hummed happily and traipsed along next to him on the dark streets until the castle bridge came into view… with its lowered portcullis. He could certainly get in, but not without alerting the watch, and thus his family, to his nighttime escapades.

“Oh no…”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s too late, I uh…” He probably shouldn’t be telling a stranger of his royal status. “I can’t go home, now. I’ll have to find somewhere else to sleep.” That shouldn’t be too much of a problem- Callum always kept a bit of pocket money when he went out- or not, he found, patting his empty pockets.

“Eh, really? That’s rough. I didn’t think hu- er, Katolins were so strict.”

“You really aren’t from anywhere nearby, are you?”

She raised an eyebrow and put one hand on a hip, revealing a bit of green and black leather armor beneath the cloak. “What gave me away?”

Alright, that was fair.

“Thought so. A bit low on cash? You can sleep at my place, then. Come on.”

“What do y- woah!” She’d taken his hand and was dragging him away at a brisk pace.

\--------------------

☽

\--------------------

Poor guy. She couldn’t help but take pity and give him a place to sleep, if he could manage to. 

This had absolutely nothing to do with his naive aura of easy prey, or the strangely alluring scent he was giving off.

Nothing at all.

Since Rayla had arrived in the capital, she’d run into a few humans that were particularly… appetizing... one way or the other, and as her literal deadline approached, that extra stimulus only grew stronger. So she hid herself away, lapsing into the natural moonshadow cycle of primarily nighttime activity. Less risk of an incident that way.

But then she’d seen him, and a spur-of-the-moment decision to talk to another person had led to _this._ Not that she was complaining, she’d just… give him somewhere to sleep and send him on his way in the morning.

Yeah. 

That was all.

“Hey, slow down! Come on!”

Woops! “Sure, sure, we’re almost there.”

“Is this really okay?”

“Of course! Got the place to m’self.”

Rayla fumbled for the iron key in her pocket before pushing the door open and drawing the stranger inside her tiny apartment. “It’s not much, but uh, make…” How did they say it here? Right! “...yourself at home!”

The human’s eyes flicked around the sparse main room before, miraculously, he yawned. “Okay. Thanks for this, by the way.”

“Nooo problem! You can sleep in here.” She led him to the bedroom, thankfully freshly cleaned earlier that day. “The bed’s a little rough, but plenty big, right?” It was definitely large enough for the both of them, set near a window where she soaked moonlight during her earliest nights in the city, spent hiding away in her rooms. The apartment had been a lucky find- her human impression combined with a compassionate landlord got her a nice-enough spot to wait out her days.

“Uh, yeah.” He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled his boots and socks off. “Are you going back out?”

Rayla blinked, unfocusing from the skin he bared by removing his jacket.

“Nope, no worries. Let’s just sleep.”

He stared, his almost startling green eyes wide. “Uh…”

“Go on, scoot!”

Rayla took his spot to remove her boots as he laid along the further side of the bed.

“Wait, you want to-”

“Share? Yeah, dummy, I’ve only got the one bed.”

“Er…”

“Oh calm down, I’m not afraid of you- just sleep.” She threw herself back with a sigh and closed her eyes.

“That’s not what-”

“Sleep.”

“Aren’t you going to take off-”

“Sleep.”

“Do you do this often?”

“No! And sleep!”

He gave up. Hearing him rustle around, she peeked over at the human and immediately regretted it. He’d turned on his side, pushing his head into the lumpy pillow, but…

His neck. His shoulder slumped back and left his neck exposed.

Rayla swallowed and forced her eyes back up to the ceiling.

No. No, no, no! It had been two cycles! Two! And the third was ending soon enough. She just had to hold out for a few more days, and… this wouldn’t be anyone’s problem anymore. 

Right. 

She just needed a distraction.

“Hey.”

Nothing. The creak of an overhead beam.

“Are you seriously asleep already?”

Silence.

Rayla unclasped her cloak and propped herself up on an elbow, turning towards him.

“H-” her mouth slammed shut to keep the instinctive salivation from spilling down her chin. The clouds had parted, letting shafts of moonlight stream down and reflect on his vulnerable, tempting… _tasty_ -looking…

She blinked, unconsciously having leaned towards the sleeping human. Wait... this wasn’t...

Her body had other ideas, urging her forward with every thread of instinct. No more waiting. Rayla sat up fully and crept forwards, letting her jaw relax to bare her fangs…

\--------------------

☽

\--------------------

This was definitely the weirdest night Callum could remember. What a strange person, just inviting him to stay so easily, then insisting they sleep in the same bed… he just didn’t want to be rude. Facing the wall all night should be fine.

It _was_ weird, but… he could feel her presence next to him, another person in close quarters. It was... calming, in a way, and he felt himself starting to finally doze off. Was this soothing sensation how it felt to sleep next to someone? Maybe this was a _good_ kind of weird night...

Yeah.

“Hey.”

But he reeeally didn’t want it to get any _more_ weird… maybe she would just leave him alone if he pretended to sleep?

“Are you seriously asleep already?”

Callum focused on keeping his breathing even, and she did stop. Maybe he’d actually get some rest? Her cloak shuffled, and the moon broke through the cloud cover outside, shimmering prettily in the sky. The open shutters swayed gently.

“ _Hah…_ ” the mood in the room shifted. Was that her _breath?_ It was so... Ragged. Heavy.

He forced himself to keep still as the dense bedding shifted under her movement, and his eyes slammed shut when she drew close. He sensed one hand pressed between him and the wall as she leaned over his body, and hot breath washed over his neck.

“Last chance…” she whispered in a husky, almost strained voice.

Last chance for what? To be awake for whatever she wanted to talk about?

Something dripped onto his skin, but before he could open his eyes, her mouth- or more precisely her _teeth_ -closed on the side of his neck. Callum was stunned beyond the tiny pricks of pain by the sudden, alien, almost… sensual sensation of her lips pressing against his neck. 

But when a distinctly _wrong_ draining feeling tugged at his instincts, he thrashed with a small yelp, sitting up and turning in one movement. He lurched on the edge of the windowsill, balancing just barely.

“AH! Oh. You’re… awake.”

They stared at each other, her strangely shimmering eyes and face framed by unnaturally white hair, and horns rising from it- an elf! -but more importantly, the smudge of red along her lower lip. Her heavy breathing hadn’t eased at all, and the fingertips of one four-fingered hand played along her teeth, as if feeling them for the first time.

Haltingly, Callum brought a hand to his neck, where her gaze lingered even now, and glanced down at his red-tipped fingers. Blood.

“Y-you’re…”

Her shining lavender eyes snapped up to his, reflecting the moonlight.

“Rayla. And you’re _delicious._ ”

\-------------------- 

_The next day..._

\--------------------

Callum traced his finger down the spines of each book and shifted the scarf higher around his neck for the hundredth time.

_Elves: Enemies of Humanity_

_Xadian species and their common uses_

_A study of Elven biology_

That one might work… everything else was skewed history and dark magic.

“Callum? Claudia said you were looking for me?”

He took the solitary book and turned to his oldest friend.

“Soren. Thanks for finding me- yeah, I’ve got some questions about something you talked about before.”

The crownguard crossed his arms and leaned against a shelf, raising an eyebrow.

“Finally getting there, huh? Well if you want to get with _Claudia_ it’s kind of weird to ask-”

Despite himself, Callum felt a blush rise in his cheeks. “No, no! Soren, we talked about this. Claudia and I aren’t like that.”

“Yeah, yeah, alright.” Soren straightened. “So who, then? Find a nice girl in town?”

“Well, sort o- wait! Soren…” Callum sighed and pushed by his friend to officially enter his borrowing of the book. “It’s not about girls. Or guys!” 

Soren lowered his raised finger in confusion. “The heck do you want to talk to _me_ about then? Guard duty?”

Callum raised the book. “Elves.”

“Uh… Callum, I’ve only seen like, one elf. From a long ways away, too.”

“You know a lot about them, though, right?” Over the years, Callum had overheard his friend discussing elves with the other guards, but Soren still looked uncertain. “Moonshadow elves, specifically.”

That earned a reaction. “Oooh those are _nasty._ Maybe the worst kind.”

“Yeah! That’s what I want to know.” One particular detail was already on his mind. “They drink blood, right?”

Soren chuckled and put a hand on Callum’s shoulder. “Oh, buddy, that’s the least of it.”

\--------------------

☽

\--------------------

The sun had set long ago, so the book waited idly in his hands while he sat on the same rooftop as before.

Would she come again? Was it too soon, the day after? Callum shivered a bit in the night breeze. He’d carefully washed the spots of blood out of his scarf, but the dense accessory didn’t dry easily, so he was bare-necked again tonight.

...Maybe that was a mistake. He unconsciously covered the tiny wounds with his hand.

“Hey.”

She’d come! “Hey, Rayla!”

“I uh… didn’t think I’d see you again, after last night.”

After his stuttering revelation, Callum had lost his balance and fallen backwards through her window, then taken off into the night in a barefooted panic. There had been plenty of time to calm down and think before sunrise, but he’d not been able to retrace his steps to her room, and cobblestone was unkind to unshod feet, so he waited out his re-entrance to the castle grounds with the excuse of early exercise.

“...but thanks for not having me run out of the city.”

Callum blinked. “Sure?”

Rayla wasn’t sitting, so he stood. Her cloak was a mass of shadow, but the lavender of her eyes faintly _glowed_ in the darkness, focusing on his neck, and Callum stiffened, taking a half-step back before he realized what he was doing.

She looked away. “Sorry. This is all new to me- I don’t… last night wasn’t supposed to happen.” Small Elven hands offered over his left-behind clothing. “I brought your stuff, since I saw you up here.”

Callum gratefully donned the jacket and dropped the boots for now, their laces tied together, his socks stuffed inside. “Wait... elves don’t normally drink blood?”

Narrowed eyes returned to his. “What? No! Wh- …okay, I can see why you’d think that.”

Maybe it wouldn’t be the best idea, but… he _did_ have the book already, so he offered it over. “Um. I was a little worried after last night, so I tried to read about… this-” he pointed between her and his neck “-to see if I was going to grow horns or lose my pinkies or something. But there was nothing, so I figured I’d ask someone who’d know...”

Rayla snorted softly and took the book. “No, your pinkers are safe. I think.”

“Pinkies.”

“Whatever.” She’d flipped through a number of pages, and he could see her eyes tracking back and forth across the words. Apparently she could read Human Common.

Callum couldn’t keep the wonder out of his voice. “You really _can_ see in the dark.”

The glowing pools glanced up. “Duh? How do you think I saw you to begin with?”

That… was a good point.

“Okay, some of this is crazy. Laying eggs? Seriously? And we _don’t_ drink blood-” She caught him staring, and his incredulity must have been plain on his face. Rayla snapped the book shut and pushed it back into his hands, so he dropped it back into his bag.

“Look, I’m an… exception. Not the rule.”

Her pale eyes wandered back to the pinpricks on his neck. “I’m… cursed. But they didn’t tell me it would be like _this._ I don’t…” she looked away again. “I don’t know what’s been happening to me any more than you do.”

“Can I help?” The words came out before he thought them, but Callum didn’t try to take them back. If she was confused, maybe they could figure things out together.

She glanced up at him, but only for a moment. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

“Just tell me what you need- I can get it!”

“I’m... hungry.”

“Is that all?” Callum picked up his boots and started to head for the way back down. “Even this late we can probably get you-”

“No!” Rayla’s hand came down on his shoulder, so he turned back to face her. A fingertip traced down his neck, over the tiny wounds, agitating them. “I’m _hungry_.”

Oh. The boots hit the floor again.

His mouth didn’t do much better. “Uh.”

The wariness was plain in her eyes, and she pulled back. “If you’re not okay with it, I won’t. I can stop. I’d never... Like I said, last night, that wasn’t-” she shifted, looking away “-that wasn’t supposed to happen, and I can’t take it back, but…”

Callum huffed a breath. Apparently a real apology wasn’t forthcoming, but that didn’t really matter. This was bigger than a little blood- she was… scared. Even if she didn’t realize it herself.

“What does it feel like?”

She blinked. “What?”

“What does that feel like? To be… bloodthirsty? Is it like needing water, or...”

Rayla flinched at the word ‘bloodthirsty,’ but her eyes narrowed in a way that let him imagine her brow furrowing. “I… it’s like…” Her hands came up, literally grasping for the words. 

“I hadn’t... _done it_ before last night. Not ever. I kind of 'wanted' to, but it was sort of like an ache…” she ended up covering her face with both hands. “It’s like being hungry, and thirsty, and turned on, all at the same time.”

Callum’s mouth opened. Then shut. Then opened again. Heat bloomed across his cheeks.

“That’s… not what I... expected.”

A sliver of shining lavender appeared between her fingers, then disappeared just as quickly. “Hey, don’t _blush_! That makes it worse!”

That _was_ blood, wasn’t it?

“Sorry, sorry!” He turned away, hiding his own face.

“No, no, I… I don’t know why I can _sense_ it like that. That’s not _normal._ ” She really _did_ sound confused.

“It’s okay! I’ll uh… try to be careful.” Deep breaths. “So this isn’t going to make me sick or something?”

“Beyond losing a little blood? No. Probably. No, no! Definitely no.” Desperation was plain in her voice.

Callum turned back around. “Okay.”

Her eyes visibly widened between her fingers. The combined eagerness and relief in her voice was almost comical. “Really? Seriously?” One tentative step towards him, and another when he didn’t retreat.

He smiled, since she could see it in the dark, and tried for a joke to lighten the mood. “Yeah, just don’t take it all? Please? I’m pretty sure I need to keep a bit.”

Rayla lowered her hood with a chuckle, and again he was struck by her exotic looks in the soft moonlight- white hair, elegant horns, large eyes and dark marking beneath them. A light blush powdered her pale cheeks, and when she threw the rest of her cloak back, he got a full view of her form-fitting armor, a clearly foreign style.

“I’ll try. I feel like it isn’t going to be _much_ blood, though _._ It’s... partly the act itself. Like I just need to _do it_ and be done, just like…” she trailed off and chuckled nervously, glancing down instead of finishing her sentence.

Callum fought to keep from blushing with her. “Uh, yeah, I get it.”

“Thank you. For not making me say it. So... it’s okay?” He nodded, and she stepped close to put her hands on his shoulders. It felt like she was going to kiss him when she leaned in, wrapping her arms around him to pull their bodies together, but she tilted her head towards his neck.

She was soft against him, and smelled of her armor and… something sweetly floral. His arms instinctively came up to hug her closer, and she startled at his touch, gasping against his neck. 

“Ah!”

“Sorry, I can-”

“No! That’s… good. It’s better like that.”

“O-okay.” He settled his hands on her upper and lower back as she sank her teeth into his neck for the second time.

Expecting it lessened the pain somewhat, but his hands still fisted in her cloak at the foreign draining sensation, clutching at some hidden tool or weapon. Rayla hummed- or groaned? -against his neck in satisfaction, and he struggled to not swallow nervously as her body relaxed into his.

In that brief moment, he felt almost… _connected_ to her. Feeling her breathing, somehow sensing her pulse. The tension melting away from her allowed him relax as well, and his hands drifted along her back-

But the spell broke, and she lifted away, unwinding her arms from around him, again lifting a hand to her mouth, unsure of herself. She blinked rapidly, looking between his eyes and neck. “Oh, wow. You’re…” a thin line of his blood ran down from the corner of her mouth as she trailed off.

“Callum. That’s my name.” He smiled, dabbing his neck with a clean handkerchief. “Not ‘delicious.’”

Rayla froze, then laughed aloud, throaty and full. Callum felt his smile widening at her mirth until an awoken townsperson shouted at her to ‘shut it.’

She steadied herself on his shoulder, sighing out the last of her laughter and wiping at her eyes, then her chin. “You’re going to have to take my word for it, but your blood is... _really_ good.”

Strangely, that felt nice to know. He couldn’t suppress a yawn, and Rayla raised an eyebrow, still smiling.

“Oh? Ready to rest tonight?”

Callum knew when to admit defeat. “Ugh, yeah. Maybe it’s the blood loss? Or just not really sleeping yesterday.” He sighed, annoyed with his limits. “Could we… talk again sometime?”

Rayla’s smile crooked into a smirk. “Sure, sleepyhead. Same place tomorrow?”

He hesitated the barest moment. "It's a date?" This yawn was so strong it squeezed his eyes shut, and when he opened them again, she was gone.


	2. Normal-thirsty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Callum and Rayla engage in the great Human pastime of 'talking and drinking!' Rayla does the drinking, anyways...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter tags/warnings: Drinking/alcohol, mild non-explicit violence.

☽  
  


Hooded, lavender eyes stared into his as Rayla crushed herself against him, the tip of her tongue running between her lips.

“ _Callum_!”

He frowned. The voice was all wrong, and Rayla’s mouth hadn’t moved.

“Callum!”

That was… Claudia. What. The pressure on his chest suddenly felt very real.

His eyes fluttered open to being jostled in his own bed. “Come on! The sun’s been up for _hours_ , what are you doing all night to sleep this long? Never mind, don’t answer that.”

Callum stretched and sat up with a groan, peeling the small bandage from the side of his neck. Not enough sleep. Or was it the blood loss? Luckily, Claudia wasn’t watching, throwing back the room’s curtains as he gingerly felt his neck, but the small wounds had clotted overnight.

“I’m not Soren, Claudia. Good morning to you, too, by the way.”

She turned, raising a delicate eyebrow. “Morning? Callum it’s nearly _noon!_ ”

Crud. There was that… thing going on at noon. He couldn’t contain a sigh.

“Thanks for getting me up. Was someone looking for me?”

“Yeah, _I_ was.”

“O-oh. Really?” Callum knew it was stupid to blush, stumbling behind his privacy screen, but old habits…

“ _Yes_ Callum.” He knew that tone, and the heat faded from his cheeks quickly enough. “Soren told me you were asking him about elves. _Moonshadow_ elves.”

He really should have seen this coming… “His memory’s really improving these days, isn’t it? He remembered something overnight!”

“ _Callum!_ Be nice!” There was a snort of laughter in her admonishment. “But why did you ask _him_ about elves and not me? You know I’ve been studying-”

Craning his head to the side, he could see in a hand mirror that Rayla’d had the presence of mind to bite him in the same place- he’d have to thank her later. “Uh, yeah, I wanted to know _about_ elves _,_ not dark magic you can do _with_ elves.”

He wrapped the now-dry scarf high around his neck and stepped from around the screen to a pouting Claudia, her arms crossed.

“I know about elves! What they can do, how they typically attack…”

“Uh huh. I’m not trying to _fight_ an elf, though. Or hunt one.”

Her pout stiffened, then dropped as she rolled her eyes. “Ugh, _fine_ , I won’t ask you to try dark magic again. So what’s it about?”

Callum hesitated. There was _no_ way he could tell her the truth. Examining himself in the room’s full-length mirror, he ran a hand through his hair to get _just_ the right amount of messy.

“Just curious.”

“You’re a terrible liar, Cal. Always have been.”

“Okay, okay, I want to know how to _talk_ to elves. How they think. What they eat. Boring stuff.” That was pretty much the truth.

Her head cocked in the mirror. “Why would _you_ meet an elf?”

“Life’s weird like that.”

One of their shared favorite sayings got him off the hook, as she smirked and nudged him with an elbow.

“Only for weirdos like us! See you at the… thing?”

“Right. The thing.”

Claudia adjusted his scarf herself before leaving. She stopped halfway through the door. “Callum?” That was her genuinely-worried voice.

“Yeah?”

“Whatever you’re doing, just be careful, okay? Moonshadow elves are especially manipulative. They’ll lie to your face like it’s nothing.”

That was rich. But he shouldn’t hold that against her after so long, and turned a smile towards her worried expression.

“Thanks, Claudia.” The words rang hollow in his own ears.

His one-time crush smiled sadly, knowingly, before closing the door between them.

\-------------------- 

☽

\-------------------- 

Callum was late.

She wasn’t even sure why she’d agreed to meet on this roof again. It was annoyingly cold, even through her cloak- the moon was hidden tonight. The city’s taverns and bars were in full swing during the week’s end… a drink would warm her right up, but for now she rubbed her gloved hands together and waited.

“Rayla! Hi!” Callum clambered his way onto the roof- he’d called out as soon as he could peek over the edge to see her.

“Hey.” Rayla frowned, inspecting him while giving him a hand up. There was something… particularly enticing about him tonight, that made her want to wrap both arms around his- _slow down, Rayla_ \- But she couldn’t put her finger on _what,_ exactly. “Hmm…”

He blushed under her scrutiny, smiling awkwardly. “What? Is there something on my face?”

“You look… different?” Rayla shook her head. “Nah, never mind. Let’s get down from here, it’s chilly.”

“Okay?”

She felt a little bad watching Callum scramble down after he’d _just_ made it up. “We should meet somewhere else so you can skip this part.”

He landed with a huff, but smiled at her. “Anywhere you had in mind?”

Rayla shrugged. “Nah. Let’s go find one!” She turned and stalked out into the street. “And a drink or three.”

“What was that last part?”

“Nothing! Now come on!” 

He jogged to catch up and walk side-by-side with her, straight towards the bustling street of week’s-end celebrators, merrymakers, and merchants looking to capitalize on them all.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Callum stared less-than-subtly at the first guard they passed, who luckily ignored them. Rayla’s hand itched to take his, but she couldn’t risk opening her cloak just yet.

“Uh huh. Great thing about your people. Won’t bother anyone if they act like they belong.”

Callum only nodded, dumbfounded, as he slowly relaxed and stopped glancing at everyone nearby. He stopped her to buy them both a steaming skewer of some stewed or simmered root vegetable. It was soft and hearty, but Callum’s cheeks-full, chewing smile somehow warmed her more than the food.

They walked in easy silence for a while, passing taverns and bars full of laughter and constant chatter. She led them down towards the docks, seeing her favored establishment was mostly empty, and- yes! Her preferred seat was open!

Taking Callum by the elbow and flashing him a smirk, she dragged him into The Knothole, a narrow bar that shared its stock with the large inn it was attached to. A dozen stools lined the space between the bar and the wall, and she walked them to the far end of the room, lifting a gloved hand in greeting to the always-silent barman, who nodded in return. 

Hooking a boot around the second-to-last stool, Rayla pulled it next to the lone seat at the head of the bar, giving them a view of the room and door. She coughed and used her trusty Human Voice to order over the bustle of the attached inn’s common room. “Two of your best over here, friend!” The barman nodded again without looking their way, and grabbed a pair of tankards.

Callum looked at her like she’d eaten a bug, and Rayla lowered her voice below the next-door commotion. “What?”

He blinked, one corner of his mouth pulling back, before he leaned close. “Are you serious? What the heck was _that?”_

Rayla took a small chance and put an arm around his unresisting shoulders, drawing him closer, trying to ignore the _blush_ on his cheeks and whispering even lower. “What was _what?”_

“That _ridiculous_ voice! Are you-” He straightened, breaking her contact, as the tankards thunked onto the bar before them. “Oh, thank you.”

Rayla slapped a pair of coins onto the bar, which disappeared just as quickly into their host’s apron pocket. She hefted her drink and cried out with as much embarrassing sincerity as she could muster. “Cheers!” 

Callum sighed and lifted his cup to hers. “Can we not attract attention? I’m honestly surprised you haven’t been caught already with that… accent.” He stared in… amazement, maybe, as she chugged away. “What are we even doing here?”

Rayla sighed contentedly as her empty tankard thunked back to the bar, but she kept her voice low. “Drinking and talking? That’s a normal human thing to do, right?”

“Ooookay. Here.” He pushed his cup over. “So what are _you_ doing here? In the city, I mean.”

She eyed him as she drank. If anyone could know, it was Callum. After all, he let her… ugh. Didn’t want to think about _that_. Lifting a hand, she called for another round that came quickly enough. Callum didn’t push this one away.

“Mm. Training.” She took another swig, but Callum merely waited, clearly unconvinced. “Fine, _fine._ I’m… _really_ bad at my job, so I was cursed and trapped here to get ‘better’ at it.”

Callum lifted his tankard, took a drink, and failed to keep his face from twisting in disgust. She chuckled at his discomfort, and he actually smiled before attempting to call her bluff. “That is the _worst_ lie I’ve ever heard, and my brother can tell some bad ones.”

“I’m serious! Look, I’m-” With an arm around his neck, Rayla pulled him into a close half-hug, ignored his distracting scent, and whispered directly into his cute little human ear. “-I’m supposed to be an _assassin_.” She tugged him back when he tensed and started to pull away. 

“But I can’t _kill_ anybody. _I just can’t do it_ , okay? So they gave me this _stupid_ ‘blood fixation’ curse thing that was supposed to make me _want_ to kill people and bound me to this _stupid_ city so full of humans I can’t even keep away from you all in the dead of _stupid_ night!” She poked him in the chest, unfairly blaming him for a bit of her troubles. “Happy now?”

Callum’s eyes were wide with disbelief when he leaned away. “What? No, I’m not happy! That’s _horrible!_ Do they _all_ do that?” He leaned in, nervously looking down the room. “Other assassins?”

Rayla sagged against the bar. “No… I’m the only real failure they’ve had in generations or something. I’ve never heard of a curse being used this way. And now I know why.” She took a drink. “It’s not supposed to make me want to… well.” She shifted her hips. “It’s definitely _weird._ ”

“Uh, yeah, that’s putting it lightly?” He pushed his drink towards her when she finished hers. “So what were you planning to? Just hang around here forever, ‘bound,’ _not_ doing… that?”

“Mm…” Rayla switched their cups, not meeting his eyes. “Yeah. Sort of.”

“You’re a terrible liar, you know that?” Hearing the smirk in his voice, she shot him a glare, and he held up both hands in surrender. “Hey, easy! I am, too, so no hard feelings or anything.”

Grumbling into her drink, Rayla clued him in on a bit of her culture. “ ‘s not something you say to Moonshadows. Insulting.”

Callum just cocked his head, raising an eyebrow. “Really? Doesn’t seem like a great thing to _want_ to be good at.” He smiled when she side-eyed him. “I, for one, think it’s _good_ that you’re uh-” He put a hand up to shield his mouth. “A bad assassin.”

She felt herself flushing from the neck up, a pleasant warmth in the chilly night. It wasn’t _fair,_ how he said all the wrong things but made them sound so right. It was probably the drink... but she knew it would take quite a few more to affect her.

“...thanks, I guess.” Rayla sighed and finished the fourth tankard. 

“Wow. You were… thirsty. ”

“Normal-thirsty.” She noticed his raised eyebrow. “Look, I don’t like ‘the b word,’ but it’s… accurate, I guess. Just don’t say it, please.” Her body throbbed with that new ache, in that strange way, stronger than ever before, and she squirmed in her seat. “Wanna maybe… get out of here? I’m getting hungry.”

“Sure.” Callum stood, then froze. “Uh, do you mean _hungry_ hungry, or-”

“ _Yes_ , now come on.”

\-------------------- 

☽

\-------------------- 

Callum allowed himself to be ushered into Rayla’s room again as she locked the door behind them.

“You can _actually_ stay this time, if you want. No need to jump from the window.”

He felt heat in his face, even if her words didn’t intend to carry their implication.

“Guess that depends how sleepy I get? It’s definitely a little uh, tiring to lose blood. I know you said it isn’t a lot, but....” He shrugged as she turned from hanging her cloak. “Oh, guess I should-”

Callum reached up to unwind his scarf, but after the first pass Rayla’s hand shot out to grip his wrist.

“Wait!” Her wide eyes were _glowing_ again, fixated on his neck, and she blinked in surprise, but continued. “I uh… can- can I do it? Take your scarf off?” She glanced up at him with a wobbly, hopeful smile. “That’s… why you looked so different to me, I think. And I want to…um.” Rayla looked a bit confused by her own words, but didn’t take them back.

That was an _odd_ request, but she’d said hugging made it ‘better’ too… “Why not? Let me just…” she released him, and he awkwardly juggled the scarf on his shoulders while shrugging out of his jacket. Leaving that on the peg next to her cloak, he noticed her fidgeting in place, looking anywhere else in the room.

Callum tried to put her at ease with a smile. “You called it a ‘blood fixation’ but this seems like a ‘neck fixation’ to me.”

She scoffed, but smiled back. “Definitely blood. Your neck is… _okay,_ I guess,” Callum mock-gasped, and Rayla rolled her eyes, “but it’s your pulse, I think. I can kind of… _see_ it.” she was frowning again, finding the words. “Not the way I see you, or your hands or whatever… it’s like a new sense that’s... partly visual?”

“That’s so _interesting_.” And it was, really. “Can I try something?”

Rayla leaned back, wary, but gave him a small nod.

“Close your eyes.”

She frowned a bit, but did as he asked- even tense, her expression was… charming, somehow. Something to sketch later.

“Tell me if you can sense anything?” Rayla nodded, so, very carefully, Callum lifted his chin and pulled down the scarf, exposing the side of his neck to her. He watched, fascinated, as her head cocked to one side, her ears twitched upwards, and her nostrils flared.

The frown shifted to vague amusement, one eyebrow rising.

“It feels like you’re... teasing me, or something. What’re you doing?”

Callum pulled the scarf up before her eyes opened. “Nothing!” He moved on before she could ask again, a bit embarrassed by her answer, and lifted his bare arm between them. “So does _this_ ‘do anything’ for you?”

Rayla gingerly took his arm and scrutinized it, eyes shimmering briefly as she examined his wrist. “A bit, but… not the same as the neck. It’s like comparing cloud and moon berries. This is... okay enough, but I know which I’d rather have.”

Callum felt a strange, thrilling twist in his gut to be compared to food. Berries were good, though, right? Sweet? “I have no idea what either of those are.”

Rayla dropped his arm. “Yeah. Human food is pretty bland.” She’d definitely relaxed, her earlier anxious expression replaced by another oddly-hopeful smile. “Not to be rude, but… I _am_ getting hungry, and this teasing isn’t helping!”

She’d called it ‘teasing’ again. That probably wasn’t the hunger part of the equation, and Callum fought down a blush in an attempt to not tease her further. “Sure, sure, I’d like to get my boots off if that’s okay.”

It was a strange _expectant_ feeling from her that followed him into the bedroom. Targeted anticipation, like they were about to do something… naughty? 

But she was just ‘hungry.’

...Right?

They exchanged a tight smile, tugging off their boots, and Callum pushed himself back onto the bed, awkwardly trying to figure out the best way to position himself while Rayla opened her window to allow in what little moonlight there was. Maybe laying down was a mistake.

“Should I just-”

“-however’s easiest for you-”

“-oh but then your face-”

“-really, it doesn’t matter-”

They both paused, and the awkward tension broke as they burst out laughing. Callum laughed hard enough that his sides ached- a feeling he’d not had in… too long. The grin stretching his face softened only when he wiped the hint of a tear from one eye, then sat up straight, cross-legged, and lifted his chin.

“Here.” He tried not to chuckle. “You wanted to take it off, right?”

“Ah, yeah! Yeah.” Rayla’s own mirth washed away as she refocused on him. On her… ‘berries’?

Callum shuddered with anticipation as she scooted forward, reaching to pluck at the red accessory. Her face was so close...

Her pupils noticeably dilated, the unnatural glow of her eyes brightening as his neck was unwrapped, and she swallowed roughly as the last bit fell away.

“Better?”

Rayla startled, blinking rapidly. “Uh, yeah. That’s… good. Can I…”

Callum tilted his head in answer, exposing the same side of his neck as before, and opened his arms to offer a hug, if she wanted one.

Her rough exhale had an almost growling edge, and he felt his pulse pick up when she leaned closer still, one hand near his hip to support her weight while the other cupped his neck. He shivered as her breath washed over him, but didn’t expect to hear his name in two different voices.

“Callum…”

“Callum!”

_Claudia??_

Rayla jerked back, and they both turned sharply to look out the window.

A flash of green light from outside, and his friend was standing in Rayla’s window, long hair billowing around her in a black wave. The violet glare of dark magic wreathed her hands and filled her eyes, which swept the now-empty room as Claudia stepped down onto the bed. Callum scrambled away from her in shock.

“Claudia?!”

“Where is it, Callum?! Agh!”

Rayla dropped from the rafters behind the intruder and locked her legs around Claudia’s waist, twisting with the momentum and taking the mage to the ground in a grapple. With a fistful of hair, Rayla wrenched Claudia’s head back and leveled a long, wicked blade against her neck, ignoring the human’s thrashing.

In the half-second it took Callum to suck in a breath, he saw Rayla’s eyes brighten in the dark, her mouth opening to close on her victim’s neck-

“ _Stop!_ ”

Thankfully, everyone froze, save heaving chests from their heavy breathing, and Rayla’s eyes dimmed as her mouth closed. Callum took the opportunity to rush over and kneel next to the pair, taking hold of the only weapon in the room by resting his hand over Rayla’s.

“Rayla, _please_ , let her go, this is my friend. She was probably just… concerned for me?”

That came out as more of a question than he’d have liked, but seemed to do the trick even before Claudia nodded her agreement, wincing as she pulled against Rayla’s grip in her hair. 

No-longer-glowing eyes watched him for a moment. “...Fine.” The would-be assassin lifted her blade away and dumped Claudia on her side before standing.

Laying a hand on Claudia’s back, he watched the void of spent dark magic slowly fade from his friend’s eyes as she struggled up, feeling her neck with one hand. She nodded to him, taking deep breaths. Certain she was recovering, he looked up to Rayla, standing against the wall.

The elf was frowning down at the weapon in her hand, gripping her wrist as if to steady it. Her eyes shifted to his, and the worry and fear in them tugged at his heart.

“Can you… can you take this from me? Please?” She lifted the thin sword.

Helping Claudia to her feet, Callum stepped over and did as she asked. Tried to, anyways.

“Um. You have to let it go for me to-”

“I _can’t_ , Callum! Take it from me, _please!_ ” Panic was edging into her voice, now, and Callum reached to pry her thumb away. He shifted his weight, and it still took all his might to get just that digit away from the others, but it was enough to slip the grip of the weapon from her hand.

Rayla collapsed against the wall behind her, still clenching the wrist- her fingers visibly shook, and without a second thought Callum pressed his hand into hers. She blinked up into his eyes, still afraid, and he tried to smile reassuringly even as she clamped down on him tightly enough to bruise, grinding his knuckles together.

“It’s over, Rayla. You can… stop, now?”

Her eyes closed, and she took a purposefully deep breath, interrupting the faster, shallow pace she’d kept.

“That’s it. Just _breathe.”_

Rayla nodded, taking another breath, and her grip on his hand loosened.

Callum glanced back to Claudia, who watched them warily, arms crossed over her chest. He didn’t miss the feather held in one fist, and shook his head with a frown. The mage only only narrowed her eyes, unconvinced.

“I’m fine now, thanks.” Rayla dropped his hand and took her weapon back, _folding_ it?... back together with a twirl and a snap, securing it behind her back in a practiced motion.

Callum realized the women were both waiting for an explanation.

“Um. Maybe we’d better sit down for this?”

Rayla rolled her eyes as Claudia scoffed, but any responses were cut off by a measured pounding on Rayla’s front door. A voice called through, vaguely muffled.

“City watch! Open up, please!”

Callum reacted first, whispering urgently. “ _Claudia, you answer!”_

_“Why me?!”_

_“They might recognize me, and Rayla is-”_ he gestured wildly in the very-clearly-not-a-human’s direction. “ _Please?”_

 _“Ugh. Fine! But you_ owe _me an explanation!”_

_“Okay, okay! The key is-”_

_“Peg by the door.”_

Claudia shot Rayla a _look_ , and Callum sighed in relief as she stepped into the main room, muttering something about lamps to light. He turned to find Rayla missing again, and looked up to find her on the rafter closest to the door between rooms. She lifted a finger to her lips for silence, and he nodded.

He held his breath as the door opened and some muffled words were exchanged, trying to smile reassuringly for Rayla, who ignored him and watched the door. She was definitely _trained_ like an assassin, after what he’d just seen…

The front shut, and Claudia’s footsteps approached before the bedroom door opened. Callum felt his tension palpably drain as she froze in the doorway, then leaned over to look up, spying Rayla.

“Nuh uh. You come down or I’m not coming in.”

Rayla’s mouth twisted into a smirk. “Suits me fine, _witch_.”

“W-witch?? What the-” Claudia sputtered at the foreign word before raising a finger to her chin and tilting her head. “Actually… that’s not bad. _Witch!_ Mysterious, right?” Her usual sly smile appeared, and Callum relaxed- that meant she wasn’t on edge.

“Uh, yeah. Sure? But please come down, Rayla, so we can explain?”

His elven… friend… groaned and dropped silently to the floor, then crossed her arms and avoided looking in Claudia’s direction. “This should be just _great._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, everyone, for your kudos and comments! I'm just having fun for Halloween and I'm glad folks are enjoying the ride! 
> 
> Claudia appears! In this universe, she hasn't been quite so torn or traumatized by choices, but hasn't had a perfect friendship with Callum, either- I hope she comes across well~
> 
> I struggled a bit writing 3-character scenes, so feel free to leave some constructive criticism if I goofed those!


	3. Research!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claudia gets mixed up in the mess, but might be part of the solution...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter tags/warnings: Brief, non-explicit descriptions of pain/suffering, non-canon messing about with magic. Ez who?

☽

“So let me get this straight.” Claudia took a deep breath, leaned forward in her seat, and opened her eyes, dropping her hands from where they’d attempted to stave off a headache. “She was cursed by _her own people_ to drink blood-”

The elf piped up from behind Callum’s chair. “Human blood, specifically, I think.”

“-human blood, and was magically _bound_ to the city until she _killed_ someone? _Anyone?_ ”

Callum glanced back at ‘Rayla,’ who nodded.

“Uh, yep. Sounds about right.”

This was the weirdest cover-up story she’d ever heard, and Ezran had some bad ones. “As _insane_ as that sounds, it doesn’t explain what I just saw.” Claudia’s hands flew towards the bedroom as she gave them each a dose of disbelief via wide eyes and raised eyebrows, gesturing with every other word for emphasis. “ _What_ the _hell_ was _that?!”_

Callum laced his fingers together and shuffled one foot, glancing over his shoulder. “Um…”

Rayla rolled her eyes and heaved a suffering sigh, pushing off the wall to stand next to Callum’s chair. “Ugh. Fine. Listen, witch-”

Callum played the diplomat and corrected her, “ _Claudia_ ,” but she didn’t need protecting, and winked at her friend with a smile.

“It’s fine, I like it!”

Predictably, Rayla’s nose wrinkled. “Claudia, then.”

“Mhmm?”

“I just ran into Callum one night, and... one thing led to another, okay? We... found out his blood tastes _really_ good, so he’s just helping me out here. Right?” She dropped a hand on Callum’s shoulder, and he nodded, smiling awkwardly.

“Uh, yep! Just helping out!”

Claudia looked between them and saw the tension in Callum’s shoulders, the slight flush growing on his face... That couldn’t be right. “Look… I’m not judging about the ‘curse’ and the blood or whatever, but can I get an answer about what I just saw? _On the bed?_ With the _kissing_ ? And the _undressing_?”

They both blushed quite vividly, and Rayla’s hand came off Callum’s shoulder as if burned.

“That wasn’t-”

“We weren’t-”

Claudia lifted both hands. “Woah, woah, defensive much? So don’t tell me, whatever.” She cupped her mouth with one hand as if to block Rayla from hearing, but didn’t lower her voice at all. “But _really,_ Callum? An _elf?_ ”

Rayla bristled as expected, her embarrassed flush paling to cold fury, but Callum just lowered his crimson face into his hands and shrank into himself. 

Yep, he was a goner. Still hopeless for an admittedly pretty face with long hair, horns or no.

His reaction seemed to unbalance the curse-bearer, who hesitated, looking between the two humans, waiting for a cue that never came as Claudia leaned back in her seat and smirked openly, gleefully aware of Callum’s tells.

The elf set her jaw and took one of Callum’s hands, pulling him out of his self-huddle and onto his feet. “I think we’d better set her straight before this gets any worse.”

He blinked at her, clearly confused. “Uh, set her straight _how?_ ”

Rayla shot Claudia a narrow-eyed glare _._ “We weren’t _kissin’._ It was just... _this_.”

Callum’s hands quickly came up to her waist as she stepped close, hands on his shoulders. “Here? Now? In front of-”

“I’m still _hungry,_ Callum…”

Claudia leaned to get a better look between them- were the elf’s eyes… glowing?

Callum shot the mage a worried look, but nodded to Rayla. “O-okay. Um, Claudia, would you mind looking the other w- _ah!_ ”

Claudia froze as she watched Rayla lean into the prince, her mouth closing on the side of his neck- over his tiny wounds... the pieces fell into place quickly from there.

For his part, Callum gripped her tightly in a half-hug, his face twisted in… not exactly pain, and he stumbled a bit, turning the pair without breaking their embrace.

Rayla’s vividly shimmering eyes opened and locked onto Claudia, but she didn’t let up from Callum’s neck.

The dark mage stood, fascinated, and approached the pair, tilting her head for a better look at the point of contact. A moment later it was over, and Rayla gave her a good view of particularly long _fangs_ leaving Callum’s neck.

Eyes flickering over Callum, she wiped the back of her hand across her mouth, smearing a bit of blood across her chin. “Better for her to understand, isn’t it?”

Claudia finished taking a huge breath. “Oh, _wow_ , that. Is. Amazing! Can I measure your teeth? How much blood do you drink at once?” When Rayla all but jumped back from her questions, Claudia turned to Callum and dabbed at the side of his neck with a fresh cloth. “Are you okay? Oh, good. Can I look at your-”

He took the cloth from her hand and waved her away, pressing it to his fresh wounds himself. “Claudia, I’m _fine._ I’ll probably get a bit tired, but we’ve already done this a couple times and I don’t think-”

“Uh, yeah, those little pricks on the side of your neck are hard to miss, even with the scarf, sorry. That’s part of what tipped me off to follow you tonight.” She glanced to the elf, who still seemed bewildered. “What’s that look for? I’m just curious! We’ve got a really _interesting_ situation on our hands here, and I’m not missing out! Oh! Can I see your hands?”

They went behind the elf’s back, and her expression changed to one of annoyance. “No! And you see, now, right? Not kissin’!”

“No, but so much _better,_ oh my gosh! When you said you ‘drink blood’ I didn’t think you meant from the _source!_ You have _got_ to tell me how they cursed you! Did they drink _your_ blood?” The hands reappeared to cover their owner’s neck, blocking Claudia’s curious eyes, so she took the opportunity to study the delicate fingers instead, following Rayla as she retreated around the furniture.

“What? No! And why should I tell _you?_ So you can afflict others with the same, or _worse_?”

Claudia crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow- Rayla really didn’t get it. “Well I’m _assuming_ you’re trying to get rid of it? Even though you’re drinking Callum’s blood every day or however often. Will you die if you don’t? Like food or water?”

The narrow hands slid down from Rayla’s neck, and one gripped the opposite elbow while she looked down and away, seemingly ashamed. “Well… yes, supposedly, but it takes a while. I had almost… it was close to that time when I ran into Callum. I was a little... tipsy, and messed up pretty badly, and, well.” She gestured to both humans. “Here we are.”

Claudia tapped her chin while Callum did Callum things and ranted dramatically about dying, or rather _not_ dying, demanding the stunned elf drink as much as she needed to stay healthy. 

Blood curses were totally new, but binding someone to one place _seemed_ to ring a bell… maybe.

_“Research!”_

Her outburst apparently interrupted a minor argument, as the pair turned from each other towards her. Callum actually staggered, looking quite pale, but Rayla caught him easily, looping his arm around her shoulders.

“Hello? We’re trying to decurse her, right?” The two exchanged a small glance before nodding in sync.

“Then _research!_ Normally I’d want you to tell me everything _right now_ but… I didn’t bring my ledger, and I don’t see Callum’s sketchbook, _weird_ by the way, Cal, and… yep he’s passing out. I’m not leaving him here, no offense, so we’re going home.”

“ _You two live together?_ ”

Claudia was so, so _sorely_ tempted to tease Rayla… too cruel, too cruel... But a _little_ was fine.

“We’re not _together_ if that’s what you’re asking,” she smirked as the pointed ears perked up and the lavender eyes hit the floor, “but we live in the same place. Something like that, anyways.”

Claudia lifted her satchel and reached to take Callum, but Rayla swayed away from her,

“Fine, you carry him, if you think you can just waltz into a guarded castle.”

“A what now?”

\-------------------- 

☽

\-------------------- 

Rayla waited, hanging over quite a long drop, shivering and annoyed. Her moonshadow form was imperfect, with the moon only _nearly_ full, but it didn’t make her any less queasy than at its peak.

Mercifully, Claudia’s voice came from above. “Now, if you hurry.”

Eager to be rid of the magic channeling through her, Rayla flipped lightly over the bridge’s stone railing, grateful to have her feet on solid ground again. She snapped her hooks away, then took Callum, still dazed, from Claudia’s shoulder, nodding for her to lead on.

The woman just stared at her, eyes darting up and down, left and right, a small smile growing on her face. She _apparently_ didn’t heed the admonishment Rayla had overheard in the city about curiosity murdering cats. Or something. _Humans_.

“ _Today,_ please?”

“Oh, right! This way.”

She led them through the temporarily-empty gatehouse and along an inner wall, away from the well-lit path to the keep itself. They slipped through a heavy doorway into a narrow stone-lined passage, where Rayla was grateful to let her moonshadow form lapse, and followed it for what felt like far too long, pausing at intersections for Claudia to check for guards. 

Rayla gave up trying to memorize their path and focused on keeping Callum upright, practically dragging him along the last stretch of a much larger hall and into a seemingly-isolated room.

Claudia dropped her bag at the foot of a long, low piece of furniture.“This is my room, so no one will disturb us here, not even my brother. Especially not after last month.” She grabbed a few pieces of split wood from a pile. “I’ll start a fire. He can sleep on the lounge.” 

Rayla lowered them both to sit, letting Callum slouch against her as she watched Claudia busy herself with the fireplace and around the room, lighting a candle, gathering up a chair and some paperwork.

“Why do you two live here?”

Claudia paused. “He hasn’t...? Well, I guess it wouldn’t really matter to you.” She continued around the room. “Our families both work here. That’s all, really.”

The place was big enough to house hundreds of people easily, so entire families living here wasn’t all that surprising. Still, Claudia’s room was awfully large...

With the fire burning cheerily, Rayla got the gist of the ‘lounge’ and pulled off both her and Callum’s boots, then lifted him bodily up onto the resting surface. She squirmed out of her armor and wrapped her legs around his waist, guiding him to lay back into her, settling his head low on her chest as she tried to relax against the tall ‘arm’ of the furniture.

“Oh, well, okay. As long as you can talk, I guess.” Claudia had seated herself and propped a board across her legs as a makeshift desk, supporting the candle and writing materials. “Now,” she twisted the quill between her fingertips, spinning it, ”tell me _everything.”_

\-------------------- 

☽

\--------------------

Callum drifted as they spoke over him, distracted by Rayla’s… proximity. That was the word. _A_ word, anyways. She’d done… the thing... in front of Claudia, and her combined anxiety and embarrassment had layered over his own during the act, doubling his own mental exhaustion, but was also agitating enough to keep him from slipping into slumber. 

She’d definitely taken more from him, this time.

He tried to listen in, but the steady rise and fall of Rayla’s chest under his head, and the steadying pressure of her thighs around his waist…

“Soooo no actual _physical_ binding? At all?”

“For the last time, _no_ . I’d know if there was one involved, trust me. It grips my _heart_. Squeezes harder the further I stray from the city.” Callum heard Claudia’s quill scratching across paper- he used to sketch with it, sometimes…

A finger toyed with his bangs, and his nose wrinkled when one brushed across it.

Claudia’s voice. “Cute, right?”

“Mm.” Rayla tensed beneath him. “Wait, _no_ -”

“Too late!” The teasing sing-song in Claudia’s voice dropped to awe, or wonder. “But _wow,_ before today I never really considered that elves and humans… well.”

Callum felt his cheeks tingle a bit at the sudden turn in conversation, but was no less curious than he was for the magic talk. He fought against the sleep on his eyelids, and snorted softly at the irony, having been troubled getting _to_ sleep for days.

After a quiet moment, Rayla’s finger traced his jaw as she relaxed again. He instinctively leaned into her touch when she cupped his cheek, and she huffed a breath, but didn’t pull away.

“It’s… not entirely unheard of. There are stories, in Xadia, but I never really thought about it happening, either. Not to _me_ especially _._ ”

“Is it the blood?”

Rayla stiffened again and removed her hand. “I don’t know. Maybe. It… the hunger… does things. To me. Makes me feel what I haven’t before. What I shouldn’t.” She touched his hair again, lighter than earlier. “I… don’t want it to be that, though.”

“Guess there’s only one way to find out, right? Give me a day or two. I’ll do some reading, and we _should_ be able to at least... unbind you. The blood thing? Not so sure. Seems like it changed _you_ more than wrapped you in a layer of magic. You’ll have to go home for that one, I think. Talk to whoever did this to begin with.”

Rayla hummed noncommittally, thumbing Callum’s ears back and forth over their rounded edges.

“They really didn’t… say how it would stop? They just left you here?”

Claudia didn’t know the full truth about Rayla’s… job... yet, and Callum grumbled softly, tensing to rise, but Rayla pressed on his chest, keeping him down without a word.

“No. They just ordered me to… kill. Anyone at all. Then trapped me here and gave me the deadline.” She shuffled a bit, readjusting. “I… I couldn’t. It made me w-want to....” Rayla’s hands stilled on his shoulders, and neither said a word for a long while. 

Claudia broke the silence, sounding uncharacteristically sympathetic. “But you didn’t. Like you said.” Slight movement, and he sensed Rayla’s head shaking over his. “Thought so, or you’d have done it back in that room, too.” No response. “Thanks for not cutting my throat, by the way. So, just to recap…”

Callum listened to Claudia rattle off a list of what they knew- the boundaries Rayla pushed as far as she dared against the binding curse, the three-moon time limit she had before needing to drink more blood, the ways she’d already tried to free herself, and so on.

He’d put up a valiant fight, but the heavy hand of exhaustion grew beyond his strength to fight...

\-------------------- 

_The next day..._

\--------------------

Claudia backed into her room, hands full with a basket of food and a few canteens. She bumped her door shut with a hip, then dropped her bounty on her makeshift desk chair and glanced over the pair on her lounge.

Callum was very clearly awake, his eyes wide, and he motioned her over urgently. He pointed over his shoulder and started to sit up, but Rayla grumbled in her sleep and pulled him back to her chest.

Claudia’s sign language was rusty, but she didn’t need to know what he was _literally_ saying to get the gist, and asked him to wait with one raised finger. She retrieved the extra-stuffed pillow from her bed and gestured for him to try again. 

Carefully stuffing the pillow between them as he pulled away, she snorted as the elf’s arms switched to the closer mass. Callum winced as the sound of tearing upholstery ripped through the quiet, courtesy of a horned head on human furniture.

They stepped away from the late sleeper and whispered to each other.

“ _Thanks, Claudia. I have no idea how I’d get away if she’d had her legs up, too.”_

_“Guess you would’ve been trapped for all eternity. How long will she sleep, anyways?”_

_“I have no idea. We’ve only known each other a few days.”_ He squirmed. _“I uh, really need to use the washroom.”_

While he was gone, Claudia set some of the food out on a smaller table across the room. They ate in easy silence, and she watched him glance in Rayla’s direction more than a few times.

“ _She’s fine. Are you?”_

He froze. “ _Huh?”_

_“Your blood, Cal. You feeling alright?”_

_“Uh.”_ He blinked and took stock of himself with a deep breath, flexing his fingers. “ _I think so? Don’t feel weak or woozy, like last night.”_

Claudia nodded. “ _Good. We need to talk.”_

_“O-oh?”_

He really should have grown out of stuttering around her by now, but she left it alone. _“Rayla told me about the spells last night, and a few… side-effects. She can apparently ‘understand’ your thoughts and feelings when she sucks you?”_

Callum blushed all the way to his hairline. Blood to spare, it seemed. _“She called it that?”_

 _“Well, no, but that’s what she’s doing, isn’t she? Sucking your blood?”_ Callum nodded, but wouldn’t make eye contact with her. “ _Anyways, that’s not the point. Do you… feel anything when she does it? Or is it just the blood to you?”_

He shifted in his seat and looked into his lap. “ _It feels weird to talk about. Personal. Private.”_

 _“Rayla already told me, Cal.”_ She tried to smile reassuringly. _“With a lot of stumbling and awkwardness, yeah, but she told me. You should, too. This is important.”_

Frowning, he nodded. _“Yeah, okay.”_ He took another deep breath. _“I can, too. It’s… strange. Like we’re the same person, in that moment.”_ Glancing up at her, he wore that same awkward smile that Rayla had. _“Sharing our bodies. At first it was just physical. I could feel her pulse, her breath, like it was my own. Feel_ my _teeth in_ her _neck, even if I’m just standing there. But…”_

Claudia leaned closer. _“But?”_

 _“Last night was different. I… she’s right. I ‘understood’ her. The uh… satisfied feeling, yeah, like when you have a really nice meal or a good drink.”_ He cleared his throat and skipped what Rayla had only very reluctantly admitted. “ _But that’s not all. I felt her fear, her worry- bundled away where it doesn’t bother her normally, but now I_ _know it’s there… even now, it’s at the back of my mind.”_

_“And that’s a lot to handle, out of nowhere. An entire person’s feelings.”_

Callum nodded slowly. “ _Yeah.”_

 _“I think you should stop this.”_ He opened his mouth to argue, as expected, but she cut him off. _“I know. She’ll die if she doesn’t. But she gets almost three months before she_ has _to. So don’t do it every day. It’s too much, too fast. Don’t do it until she leaves, okay?”_

He deflated, and she knew he’d seen reason. _“You’re right. Okay. We won’t.”_

_“Good. I’ve got a lead on the whole ‘binding’ thing, so hopefully I’ll find a more… elegant way of dealing with it.”_

_“There’s more than one way?”_

_“Well, yeah. That’s one of the great things about dark magic, Cal. You can always force the issue.”_

\-------------------- 

_A few days later..._

\--------------------

Callum squeezed Rayla’s hand reassuringly as they watched Claudia try to activate her detection cantrip.

“We’re sure this is going to work?”

“Yeah! Claudia’s really good! Right?”

The mage’s fingers sparked, and she shook the hand out. “Ouch! Oh, yeah, it’ll work! In theory.” Callum caught Rayla’s ears drooping. “And only my dad is better, in Katolis!”

“Shouldn’t we ask your dad, then?”

They exchanged glances over the reclining Rayla.

“No.”

“Definitely not.”

She looked between them, on either side of the lounge, and let her head sink back with a groan, impaling the poor furniture with her horns. Callum blinked at the sight, covering his bite marks with a hand as Rayla apologized. “Uh, sorry about your couch thing, by the way. I kinda tore it up in my sleep.”

“That’s okay! Oh, here we go!” A gauzy white light filled the loop made by Claudia’s thumb and finger, connected at their tips. She held the hand to one eye and looked through the light, down at Rayla. “Yep, same as before. I can see it.”

They’d done some testing at the perimeter of the city, and Claudia’s detection spell could visibly see the binding squeezing around some inner part of Rayla’s natural magic connection, or organs, or however that worked. 

Unfortunately, they’d found the only ways to remove the binding required either draconic intervention or the presence of a particularly powerful source of moon primal energy, neither of which the city or Claudia had at-hand.

Disruptive court proceedings forced an extra day to be wasted trying to find _what_ she’d been bound to, but nothing with a trace of magic was within the city blocks they’d triangulated from her physical limits.

So it was time to force the issue.

The plan, as Claudia put it, was for her to… extract the binding’s magic alone, without touching Rayla’s. It wasn’t perfect, but Claudia hadn’t kept anything from either of them, and Rayla had agreed to the risks, and now straightened up with a defiant look.

“Let’s get this over with.”

“Alright. Might wanna let go of her hand, Cal. Just in case.”

“That’s not exactly inspiring confidence over here, you know.”

“Having second thoughts?”

“...No.”

“Okay then! Just try to relax, and no sudden movements. I have no idea if this is gonna hurt or not.”

“Good point, hold on.” Rayla removed her belt and tossed its buckle to Callum, who blushed and distracted himself from staring by examining the stylized moon in his hands. Folding the tough material back and clamping it between her teeth, Rayla nodded to the mage.

Claudia let out a long breath and leaned close. “No take-backs, now.” Taking another deep breath, she blinked slowly to call the bright glow of dark magic into her eyes. One of her hands carried the detection spell while the other hung just over Rayla’s chest.

Callum held his breath, watching Claudia’s hand move minutely in different directions, finding the right place. The scene reminded him of a few medical procedure depictions he’d read about in idle curiosity.

“Here we go, now…”

Her hand clenched into a claw, grasping, and a strangled cry bubbled in Rayla’s throat as she arched off the lounge, fingers puncturing its cushions. A faint, pale light bloomed from both Claudia’s hand and Rayla’s body.

“ _Hold her, Callum!”_

He stood and leaned his full weight on Rayla’s abdomen, but her taut muscles wouldn’t budge.

“She’s too strong!” Callum fought down panic and looked into Rayla’s eyes, full of fear and pain, wet with forming tears. He pawed at her hand, trying to hold it between both of his. “Rayla- Rayla I’m _sorry._ I know it hurts, but you have to relax! It might get worse if you don’t!”

Her face contorted, and her eyes squeezed shut, forcing tears from their corners. Her body shook with exertion, but she didn’t- _couldn’t?_ -relax.

“Claudia, just let her go! This isn’t working!”

“I _told_ you I can’t once I start! If I do, it’ll be like breaking the crust off one of those stupid custard-”

“Okay, okay! We’ve gotta…”

Callum stood and wiped the tears from Rayla’s tense cheeks. “Rayla! Rayla can you hear me?” Her eyes opened, just barely. “I want you to bite me.”

“Callum!”

“Shut up, Claudia! Rayla, do you think blood would help at all? I don’t want you dying, remember?”

She blinked, agonizingly slowly, but nodded weakly.

“Callum, I really don’t think-”

“I’ve got nothing else, Claudia, so I’m giving what I’ve got!” He tore the scarf from his neck and shucked his jacket, fumbled the clasps of the high-necked shirt he’d been wearing to help block Rayla’s visually-based desires, and ripped it open in frustration.

Rayla’s eyes were glowing now, as they had before, wide and trailing down his exposed chest. The belt fell from her open mouth, and she swallowed roughly.

Kneeling next to her, Callum gently cupped the back of her head and did his best to lower himself to her mouth without blocking Claudia’s sight. Rayla’s teeth dragged along his neck, and she hesitated.

“Do it.”

She did, and Callum choked as white-hot pain flooded his body, his muscles spasming against his will, and he clutched her more tightly against him. He felt her relax in turn, dropping back to the lounge, but still squirming too much.

Callum _felt_ her, consciously, her fear for them both, and her purposeful restraint from making him suffer. “More, Rayla, I can take it!” Trying to relax despite the pain, he combed his fingers through her hair and tried to mentally smile, if that was possible. “ _Please.”_

He felt her hands slide up to embrace him, one fisting in his hair while the other dug its nails into his shoulder. Her jaw twitched, and the pain became almost blinding. His breaths came in gasps as Rayla loosened further, gently stroking his head and back.

Claudia’s voice sounded like she was talking through a thick door as his vision slowly darkened. “Almost… there!”

At once, the pain ended, and Rayla released him, falling back onto the lounge with a gasp.

Covering his neck, Callum turned to Claudia. “You did it?”

Her clawed hand held a glaring blue storm of swirling lights and spinning wisps of energy. “I- I don’t think so! It’s not dissipating! It’s not- agh!” She gripped her wrist and grimaced. “I’ve got to put it back! It’s hurting me!”

“What?! No! Just cast a spell with it! That’s what dark magic does, right?”

“I can’t just turn any old primal magic into whatever spell, Callum! _Ack!_ P-please move, it might kill me at this rate!”

Callum looked down at Rayla, dazed and panting, covered in cold sweat, with his blood running from the corner of her mouth. Her eyes rolled, lids fluttering, as he pieced together what she’d felt through the pain, and what she’d been thinking after he’d taken it from her.

“No.”

“Callum I c-can’t-”

“Bind me instead.”

“You can’t be seri- _ugh! -_ fine, turn this way.” His friend’s face was twisted in anguish. “Dammit, Callum…”

He stood up straight and looked Claudia in the eye as she thrust the blob of energy toward his chest.

“If we all live through this, you owe me big time, Cal.”

“Ten times over.”

Another of their old sayings, and Claudia’s pinched expression flickered a brief smile before she opened her hand. Callum felt tight, hard chains filling his chest, constricting tighter and tighter, choking him from the inside. His vision darkened from the loss of breath, and he collapsed into Claudia’s arms, gasping in futility, until he lost control and blacked out completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again, everyone, for your kudos and comments!
> 
> Halloween is almost upon us, and next chapter will be the last! Thank you for following along on this oddity of a story! Stay safe out there!


	4. Connection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rayla exercises her newfound freedom as Callum and Claudia recover from their ordeal.

☽

Callum was very aware of how _dry_ his mouth felt. Then aware of his awareness, and _that_ entailed that he was _awake_. He thrashed and sat up, Rayla’s name on his lips, and blinked. This wasn’t Claudia’s room. A row of low beds, one of which was his, sat along the stone wall. 

They’d brought him to the infirmary. Or one of them had, anyways.

Lina, the castle’s chief of medical staff and royal physician, blinked at him over her desk, then rose and rushed over, reaching for a bedside pitcher to pour him a cup.

“Prince Callum! Please remain seated, and drink, if you can- I’m certain you’re thirsty.”

He gulped the offered water as Lina waited patiently, her freckled face splitting in an easy, genuine smile. 

“How long was I out?”

The doctor refilled his cup and sat on the next bed in the row, setting the pitcher aside. “Miss Claudia brought you in the night before last- you’ve been unconscious for a day and a half.”

Callum choked on his water, but waved the doctor away when she made to stand. “A _day?”_

“And a half, yes. It’s just before the mid-day meal-”

“ _Over_ a day?! I’ve got to-”

This time Lina beat him up, forcing him back down with a hand on his shoulder and a stern look that took Callum right back to his childhood. “The only thing you’ve ‘ _got’_ to do is let me clear you to do as much as walk, your highness. Shall I send for your father? Your brother?”

“No, no, let them eat. I should join them, really-” he winced when the look became somehow _more_ stern “-or not. Let’s just uh, make this quick? Maybe?” 

Callum used his royal, winning smile, which moved Lina not one bit. “That will depend on _you,_ Prince Callum. Now lay back, please.”

He groaned, but did as she asked.

\-------------------- 

☽

\--------------------

Rayla unrolled the ‘tailor’s tape’ and rubbed it between her fingers. Seemed clean enough.

“If I feel so much as a _breath_ on them _,_ you’re _done_. Got it?”

Claudia nodded impatiently. “Yeah, yeah, got it. I still can’t believe you don’t care enough to already know- but I’m ready when you are!”

With a deep breath, Rayla pinched the end of the tape marked with a “0” that Claudia had indicated and reached up, pressing that end to the base of one horn. She let the tape slide through her other hand until it was drawn taught to the horn’s pointed tip, and waited.

“Ooooh. Huh.” Scratching on parchment. “Hmmm… _that’s_ interesting. I wonder…”

Even trained arms got tired when held overhead. “Are you finished?”

“What? Oh, yeah! Sorry, you can stop.”

Rayla dropped her hands into her lap with a sigh of relief. “Well?”

“Oh ho ho, so you _are_ curious.”

Rayla scoffed, but her heart wasn’t in it. “Am _not_. Just… may as well know, since we measured.”

“Still in denial, huh? Well, I can say I wasn’t expecting them to be so _big._ Like… they _look_ normal on you, but reading the number is a different story. Are they heavy?” She smirked down at her calculations.

Rayla covered her face with a hand for what felt like the hundredth time in one day. “Can you… not say it that way? I _know_ you’re doing it on purpose.”

The mage chuckled, still writing. “Oh come on, let me have a _little_ fun? We both know you _aren’t_ big. You and Callum are too stiff! Lighten up!”

 _That_ piqued Rayla’s interest. “Callum too, huh?”

Claudia smirked in the gloating way that made Rayla want to slap it off her face… and maybe made her feel a little self-conscious, too.

“Oh, _yeah._ ” Claudia leaned in conspiratorially, and Rayla turned to face her, admittedly caught up in the game this time. “He got _so_ embarrassed when I asked him about the whole-” she mimed a bite and poked herself in the side of the neck with two fingers “-thing. I asked how he felt when you _su_ -”

A knock came at the door, and Ralya threw herself across the room, stepping into Claudia’s wardrobe of… well, _robes,_ mostly, when she heard his voice and froze.

_“Claudia?”_

Muffled, but definitely Callum.

Rayla moved to rip the door from its hinges, but Claudia stepped in the way with a whisper and a stiff expression. “ _Hide. He could have guards.”_

Stupid… logic.

She hid, and pressed an ear to her wooden hiding place.

The door, and Claudia. “Callum! I’m so glad you’re okay! Come in!”

Footsteps, and the door again, then Callum’s voice.

“Where’s-” but he was shushed.

More footsteps, walking closer.

Still, she waited, gritting her teeth and mentally urging Claudia along.

“Okay, Ralya, all clear!”

She all but burst from her cover-

“Agh!”

Rayla winced as Callum stumbled back, clutching his face.

Claudia caught him with her good arm, cringing at the accident. “Oh _crap,_ sorry, Cal-”

She’d hit him with the wardrobe door, but he was _laughing._

“It’s okay, I’m okay, it’s not bad. I’m just glad you’re both-” their eyes met, and he trailed off.

Something pulled her forward, and Rayla stepped closer as he did the same. Without a word, they threw their arms around each other, and it felt… _right._

“ _I’m so glad,”_ he murmured into her shoulder. His hand was in her hair again, combing through it all soothing-like.

Her throat was tight, but Rayla managed to croak a response, her hands hooked over his shoulders. _“Me too, Callum. I thought… I was so…”_

_“I know.”_

And he _did_ know, didn’t he? She pulled back to look him in the eye, and saw it- his _understanding_ of her. And that was… _terrifying._ But… she knew _him,_ as well, and had clutched his warm acceptance to herself these last days, letting it ease her worries, steady her legs and fill her lungs with healing comfort. The rest of him… the not-all-happy bits... she could deal with those alongside her own.

Rayla just hoped that he took _some_ similar solace in whatever he found in her. And if the gentle _look_ on his face was any indicator, he must have found… something.

“You…” a faint trickle of blood had sprung from the corner of his mouth, glistening in that tantalizing way...

Right. The wardrobe. He’d gotten hit. And was… hurt… but that _hunger_ had taken root in her again, a dreadful, aching tension coiling in her stomach, straining to be broken, and she felt herself swallow back the instinctive salivation-

“Rayla?”

She blinked rapidly and looked away, nearly letting him go, and sighed.

“I… didn’t want _that_ getting involved, but I guess there’s no helping it.” Rayla waved away Claudia and the medical kit she’d walked over with. “I’ve got this one.”

Callum chuckled with a smile. “I’ve had plenty of rest, now. Hungry?” He didn’t so much as blink as her hand rested on his cheek, like she’d done it a thousand times, but still blushed as her fingertips ran along his jaw.

“For you?” Rayla leaned close, and when he tilted away to expose his neck, she guided him back. “Always.”

She pressed a soft kiss to the bloodied corner of his mouth and leaned back in his arms, running the tip of her tongue between her lips. Rayla tried for a hopeful smile and shivered bodily as the smooth, tangy sweetness of him suffused her with that same electric tingle as always, spreading down through her limbs in a wave of pleasurable relief.

He laughed softly, a shining smile splitting his face, and pulled her closer still, leaning his forehead against hers. “I feel like I’ve seen this moment somewhere before. In a dream, maybe?”

Rayla sighed happily at his reassuring acceptance, relaxing in Callum’s arms, and let her eyes drift closed. The blood-taste and effect were the same, but there was no dramatic... _connection_ this time- so it _could_ be different, just like-

“Told you it didn’t have to be the neck.”

“Gah!” Rayla leapt back- but it was just Claudia.

“Forgot I was here, you guys? Really? Good for you, but this is _my_ room. Get your own.”

With a glance at Rayla, Callum flushed vividly, and this time she looked away from the display on his cheeks- no need to go _looking_ for trouble. “Sorry, Claudia. But thank you, so, so much, for what you did.”

The dark mage seemed unimpressed. “Don’t thank me just yet. You’re ‘bound’ now, remember?”

His hand came up to his chest, over his heart. “I remember.” Rayla straightened as he turned towards her, smiling. “And you’re free?”

She nodded. “Got further into the forest than I’d ever been able to.”

Callum frowned. “You... haven’t left?”

“Wh- how could you ask me that? Of _course_ not, with you laid out like that…”

“But…” right. He _knew_ just how homesick she was.

“It’s fine, Callum.” An eyebrow rose. “It is! I needed to know you’d be…” she gestured towards him. “Alive.”

“Our best doctor cleared me for ‘normal activity,’ so I’d say that qualifies as ‘alive.’ ”

Ralya rolled her eyes as he grinned.

“So now you’ll go?”

She frowned, a bit taken aback. “You want me to?”

“What? No, but, I want you to be, y’know,” he shrugged. “Happy. And you never meant to come here, to a foreign city, surrounded by… technically enemies? I guess?” His smile twitched up again. “Unless my brain got all scrambled while I was under?”

Claudia laughed from the other side of the room. “Want me to check?”

“No thanks!” Callum turned back to Rayla. “So?”

She sighed. “Yeah. I’m going.”

“Good.” Callum smiled again, but she read the hint of sadness in it and looked away, feeling her ears droop.

Rayla’s hand twitched towards his, but she tightened it into a fist. That wouldn’t be… right for her to do. Not anymore. So she gathered up all the weird, warm, adoraburr-fuzzy feelings and stuffed them away- only then could she look him in the eye again.

“Tonight.”

\-------------------- 

☽

\--------------------

“That was so anticlimactic. You’re just gonna let her go?”

Callum worked the fingers of Claudia’s debilitated hand between his own. She hadn’t been exaggerating that the binding spell had hurt her.

“Yeah? She has a family to go home to, Claudia.”

“You sure? That _looked_ like a kiss, to me, for real this time.”

“Not… _that_ kind of family. Her parents. Besides, she’s got the whole… thing… to get figured out.”

Claudia huffed a sigh and turned her hand over for him to massage its back. “I almost hope she doesn’t. I want details! There’s literally _nothing_ on this in the library or my dad’s books on Xadian wildlife. Just rumors and hearsay that elves are ‘bloodthirsty-”

Callum interrupted her, hotly. “Rayla isn’t ‘ _wildlife_ ,’ Claudia. She’s a _person._ ”

He ignored the frown on his friend’s face and concentrated on her hand.

“Well, yeah, I can see _you_ think that, holding her the way you did.”

Callum took a slow, deliberate breath, but didn’t let up on his ministrations. This felt like… a fork in the road. He could joke about her being jealous, but… it felt _right_ to get a little philosophical instead. “Why _don’t_ you see her that way?”

“She’s a magical creature, Cal, whether or not she’s a person, and that comes first. She wouldn’t even let me have a _fingernail clipping._ Can you believe that? Rude!”

Dark magic again. This was going to be a _long_ two to six months of recovering her hand’s strength.

“Honestly, I’m surprised you two didn’t murder each other while I was under.”

Claudia smiled in the soft way that used to make his heart flutter. “I think we both knew you’d be sad if something happened to either of us, so we… cooperated. I brought her food, she let me look at her hands and measure her horns-”

“ _You touched her horns?_ ” Callum clamped his mouth shut, embarrassed by his outburst, and got back to work on Claudia’s hand, flexing her fingers back and forth while she stared at him in surprise.

“ _Wow_ Cal… have you been into elves this entire time and didn’t tell me? I probably could’ve gotten you elf horns if you really wanted some.”

“Can we... _not_ talk about dark magic, Claudia? Or… spell components,” he gagged, mentally,  
“or anything like that?”

“Fine, fine. What do _you_ want to talk about, then?”

“Secrets.”

Claudia looked away, down at the book in her lap, and let her hair fall between their faces like a curtain. Her tone was careful and soft. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry, Claudia, for being so… stupid about our... thing for so long. You did me a favor, telling me face to face, and that probably wasn’t easy for you. So, yeah, I’m done with being a bad friend. No more pouty Callum.”

“...thanks.”

“No, it should’ve been this way to begin with. Really. I should’ve been understanding and supportive, not… whatever that was. So let me help fix up your hand. Because this is my fault, yeah, but also because I want to. As a friend. So you’re still clean on the ten big favors.”

“Not good enough.”

Callum paused. “What?”

“Not good enough! I want the dance, too! The one you used to do for Ez!”

“The d- seriously, Claudia?”

“Does this look like my joking face to you?”

Her frown twitched upwards as she audibly choked on laughter, her shoulders shaking with mirth.

Callum couldn’t help smiling himself. “Yeah, actually, it does, but _fine_ . The crazy jerkface dance is a dance of stupitude and sorriness, so this is the perfect time for it. _Observe._ ”

Claudia howled with laughter, stomping her feet along with his dance and, until his breath ran out, Callum wasn’t pained by the ache of Rayla’s absence.

\-------------------- 

_Days later..._

\--------------------

“That is... quite the tale, Rayla.” Her fathers exchanged another _highly_ suspicious glance, and Ethari leaned across the table towards her, eyes flicking towards her chin. “Will you show us?”

She’d probably be doing this for a long time, and smiled, uncomfortably wide, showing off the somewhat-elongated pair of teeth in the upper row. Not quite _fangs_ , but… close enough.

Ethari only nodded, as if she’d shown them a bruise or small cut. “Ah. That seems about right.”

Rayla alternated staring between him and Runaan, who also seemed far too calm, considering the situation.

“Okay you two, spill it. What aren’t you telling me?”

Runaan answered, cool and calm as ever. “Rayla. You said they did this in an attempt to force you to overcome your... preference to preserve life.” And with the flowery language.

“That’s a nice way of putting it, yeah. So?”

“Can you think of anyone you know with a similar outlook? A great respect for life?”

When Rayla frowned, his eyes flicked towards his husband.

“Well, sure, I know Ethari wouldn’t hurt an _ant,_ but what’s that got to do… with…”

Ethari only smiled, ever-gentle, and nudged the former assassin at his side. “You’d best show her.”

Runaan grimaced, but tugged off one of his long gloves. Rayla leaned forward as he laid the bare hand, palm up, on the table between them, scanning his fingers for whatever cryptic answer they were trying to give her. She only found it after giving up on his actual hand and looked further up his arm.

Faint, old, and faded, but unmistakably _bite_ scars were plain on Runaan’s wrist, small points of discolored skin a particular distance from each other- so similar to what she’d left on Callum’s neck.

Rayla ripped her eyes from the scars and stared at Ethari, aghast, too full of questions to know where to start.

He smiled, overly-wide as she had, but his teeth were… normal?

Runaan spoke up, drawing her attention away. “This curse is old magic, long banned from use due to the uncertainty of its full effects. Ethari…” He took a slow, fond breath, and looped an arm around his husband’s waist. “Ethari afflicted himself with it when we were younger, wanting to grow stronger, to stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of us on our missions. The… side effects may have brought us together a little earlier than either of us expected.”

The smith shook his head, smiling at his husband’s retelling of their past. “I thought I was… broken. Wrong to feel the way I did. Act the way I did. And so did.. your _partners,_ it seems.” He turned his attention back to her with a deliberately pointed look, saying more than he voiced, bringing up an old discussion without a word. 

_And so did you._

Runaan sighed in annoyance. “I’ll be speaking to the rest of the council tomorrow. We’ll need you there, of course- they’ll likely require an… examination.” He took a deep breath, replacing his glove. “I’m afraid this won’t end well. You may be permanently withdrawn from duty.”

Rayla was just grateful to have survived the ordeal, and didn’t want anything more to do with Skor or Callisto, the current co-leaders of her band. She shuddered, recalling the strange, invasive feeling of the magic that had twisted through her that night.

“That suits me just fine, I think.” She looked away from her mentor, ashamed but certain of herself. “I’m sorry, Runaan, but… I think I’m done being an assassin, whatever the council decides.” She lowered her forehead into an open palm. “What should I _do?_ ”

Ethari’s warm hand took hers on the table. “Get through this first, Rayla, and you’ll have plenty of time to decide that for yourself.”

Runaan’s gloved hand covered both hers and Ethari’s, a silent reassurance, and she squeezed them both, grateful for their support, before raising her eyes from the table.

“So how did you get rid of it? Fix your teeth? Stop the…” she gestured to Runaan’s wrist.

Another exchanged glance between them, and Ethari frowned as he answered.

“That’s... complicated.” He shifted his hold on her hand, gripping more firmly. “I was never quite able to rid myself of it completely. In all my years bearing this curse, we haven’t found a cure or release.”

Rayla felt her shoulders sag, the pit of her stomach hollowing into a cold well of anxious despair. This was permanent? But… Runaan’s scars were so old, and Ethari’s teeth so normal…

Ethari hadn’t finished, and squeezed her hand again. “But it _changed_ , over time. The thirst shifted- it may never have been for the blood at all, but for the _connection._ You’ve felt it?”

Rayla nodded, numbly. She’d left that out of her original story, not wanting to alarm them more than necessary.

“I felt what you had, once, and… did things I’d never _dreamed_ possible of myself, but now-” Ethari took his husband’s spare hand and they leaned into each other, letting their foreheads rest together, eyes closed, for a moment before he turned back to Rayla. “-this is enough. Runaan wasn’t the first I… sated myself on, but only he sparked _that_ within me.”

Rayla’s free hand curled into a fist under the table.

The _connection._ Even now, days later, she felt him under her skin- a warm, soothing ember that she’d wrapped herself around each night in the wilderness, on her way home.

_Callum._

\-------------------- 

_Weeks later..._

\--------------------

Callum navigated through the festival space, weaving through the crowd of revelers. The autumn celebrations he’d helped organize were in full swing, and he wanted to make certain the night went smoothly.

A stand advertising honeyed fruits drew his attention, and he stepped up to the merchant’s counter with a particular question, still curious after all this time.

“Do you sell moonberries?”

The woman’s eyebrows rose. “ _What_ berries?”

He sighed internally and handed over the displayed price. “Never mind- one serving, please.” After he’d dispatched the treat and thanked the merchant, Callum stepped back into the streets, readjusting his owl mask.

The celebrants dressed as Moonshadow elves stuck out like banthers in a cornfield, his eyes tracking to bleached wigs of shredded cloth with their wooden ‘horns,’ or facepaints that weren’t animal whiskers or a beast’s toothy grin.

Rayla had been gone around three months, and he still thought of her every day, dreamed of her every night... and now this.

It felt wrong, to see so many Katolins imitating the appearance of elves, as if they weren’t _people._ Claudia’s low opinion of elves sadly wasn’t all that much of an outlier, he’d learned over the weeks, but he’d found plenty of townsfolk who shared _his_ way of thinking, too. He had hope for a way towards a peaceful future...

The night’s celebrations went well, and Callum rounded it off by ‘helping’ a farmer empty the last few cups of cider from his barrel, discussing the harvest and the man’s family. The masked prince took one last round in-hand before bidding the man farewell and heading towards his nightly routine.

Using a stool he’d hidden to boost himself up, Callum sat on the same roof from the fateful nights that felt so far in the past. Swinging his legs, as always, he sipped the final cup of cider and watched the lights wink out across the city, the mask forgotten at his side.

Leaning back, he looked up at the full moon, the second this month- a rare occurrence that no one could seem to agree on the meaning of. The farmer had called it unlucky, but a craftsman had an opposing opinion. Callum sighed- it might mean something to particular to Rayla.

“What’ve you got there?”

Callum froze. It was… a perfect copy of her voice. He’d heard it plenty, in his dreams, a sweet echo of her full laughter, or the teasing tone as she poked his nose.

But… she _couldn’t_ be.

And she was, as she sat down beside him, the same as before, only missing her cloak.

“Hmm… not alcohol this time?” Rayla ignored him and took the cup from his unresisting hand before giving it a sniff. “Oh. _Definitely_ alcohol.” Then a sip. “Mm, sweet! Not bad.” Only _then_ did she meet his stare, and she smirked, reaching out to lift his chin with a fingertip, closing his gaping mouth.

“R-Rayla?” She nodded, still smirking, while her eyes tracked over his face. Her finger ran along the edge of his jaw, then she pinched his earlobe before cupping his cheek.

Callum all but melted into her touch, sagging bodily, as any possibility that he was dreaming finally faded away. He reached to touch her arm, her shoulder, to stroke her cheek, to run his fingers through her wild mane, and she shuffled closer, responding to his touch as he had to hers.

“You’re really here…”

“I am, and I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m _starving._ ”

“Ah, okay.” It _had_ been quite a while.

He reached up to unwind the scarf from his neck, but she caught his hand and shook her head. “Not for... _that_ , right now. For _you._ ”

Before he could ask what she meant, her hand fisted in the scarf, and she pulled him towards her, stopping just short, and looking between his eyes, asking, as if she didn’t already _know,_ and Callum answered by closing the distance and pressing his lips to hers. 

The world faded away as her hand slid down his chest, over his heart, and he _felt_ her again, as before, their combined senses of joy and relief filling his head and chest with sweet feelings of adoration and longing that mixed back into the whirling pool of sensation between them in an almost dizzying shift of emotion.

He had to break the kiss to breathe, leaning his forehead to hers as brightly-colored spots danced in his vision. He was embarrassed to find himself breathless, and Rayla chuckled nervously.

“That was…”

“Y-yeah…”

Her hand pressed against him more firmly, and a slow smile spread across her face. “Your heart’s beating so fast…”

Callum nodded, still recovering from their kiss. “You do that to me. Do you want to…?” He plucked at his scarf, offering to remove it, and her eyes shimmered, but Rayla shook her head again.

“Not… yet. Let’s just… _be_ , right now?” Callum nodded, and she took another sip of the cider he’d forgotten before offering it back. “And yeah, the moon means a lot to us, of course.”

He nearly choked on his sip of the drink, and turned away to clear his throat. “Y-you can tell what I’m _thinking_?”

Rayla fought against a smile, but it was in her eyes, and he pouted good-naturedly when she ruthlessly laughed in his face. “Not quite, but I saw you staring before I spoke up. I _could_ feel a bit of your curiosity, though.”

Callum chuckled, more than happy to be the butt of her joke. “I was a bit overwhelmed, honestly.”

She looked up at the moon. “I know exactly what you mean, but… not in a _bad_ way.”

“No.” He felt himself going all mushy again, just from watching her bask in the moonlight, its luster shimmering in her hair. She seemed to _glow_ faintly, from the inside. A gentle glow, entirely different from the ‘hungry’ light that could fill her eyes. “Not in the slightest.”

Rayla turned, at that, and he watched her eyes widen slightly before softening as her tender smile reappeared, squeezing his chest in that sweetly painful way.

“This is going to be complicated, isn’t it?”

He nodded, but took her hand and looked up to the definitely-lucky moon.

“It is. But I have a good feeling about it, all the same.”

She shuffled even closer, their knees touching now, and leaned her head against his.

“Me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Too long, didn't write:  
> Rayla takes Callum's royal status in stride and travels between their homes, eventually finding a way to dispel the binding. They work together to facilitate peace between their peoples, and Claudia does eventually come around to seeing Elves AS people. Soren still thinks they lay eggs and have eyes in the backs of their heads. Ezran eats too many jelly tarts. Everyone -eventually- lives happily ever after.
> 
> Thank you everyone for your kudos and kind comments, and for joining me on this little Halloween ride- it began as a tangent in an unpublished fic that ended up not quite working the way I wanted it to, so I sweetened it up a bit and added a few more dashes of Vampire for the Halloween fun!
> 
> If you have any questions, feel free to ask them! I tried to hint towards answers to questions people may have, but acknowledge that they may be unclear. I still have so much to learn about writing!
> 
> Thank you all again, and see you next time!


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